Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

There are approximately 140 lawsuits against manufacturers of pain pumps currently pending in state and federal courts throughout the country filed on behalf of patients who had used pain pump devices following shoulder repair surgery that were unreasonably and dangerously defective and caused serious pain and disability. The number of lawsuits has jumped considerably since the summer of 2008, says Frank Woodson, shareholder with Beasley Allen Law Firm.

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The On-Q PainBuster pain pump manufactured and marketed by I-Flow Corporation, is now being used by obstetricians and gynecologists to ease a woman’s pain caused from the incision made for Caesarean section deliveries and hysterectomies, according to the Fort Wayne, Indiana News-Sentinel.

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Astros baseball catcher Toby Hall, who has been contemplating shoulder surgery since suffering a torn labrum two years ago, has decided to move forward with shoulder surgery, according to the Houston Chronicle.

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Two studies show that knee surgery is beneficial at times but should not be performed routinely for the treatment of osteoarthritis, according to Fox News. The studies were published in a recent New England Journal of Medicine. One finds that medicine combined with physical therapy is just as effective as surgery for relieving the pain and stiffness of moderate or severe arthritis. The other study finds that tears in knee cartilage that often result in surgery are very common and do not always cause symptoms.

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A lawsuit filed filed against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Stryker Corp. claims the companies distributed defective pain pumps even after learning the pumps had destroyed shoulder cartilage and the FDA had repeatedly rejected the products, according to Courthouse News Service. The lawsuit also names Hospira Inc. and Abbott Labs, saying the two companies encouraged the pain pump manufacturers to use their anesthetic drugs in conjunction with the pumps even though the medications had not been properly tested.

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Health Canada has issued a statement encouraging health care professionals to follow instructions for use and refrain from using postoperative pain pumps for continuous intra-auricular infusion of local anesthetics – especially with epinephrine – after shoulder surgery.

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When a 37-year-old canine officer injured both of her shoulders after a fall at work, she sought shoulder surgery to fix her injuries and to relieve the pain she suffered. Multiple procedures were performed on both shoulders, most of which I can’t even pronounce, and postoperative pain pumps were administered to both shoulders following the surgery.  The problems she suffered in the future were not something she had bargained for.

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Through arthroscopic shoulder surgery, patients hope for better use of their shoulder and to put an end to their shoulder pain. The expectations of the surgery include alleviating patients’ shoulder problems, and for their post-surgical pain to be eased through pain pumps. While the problems initially might have been alleviated through surgery, it was the pump to ease the pain after the surgery that brought the patients back with more pain and suffering than before.

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Dr. Charles Beck, a well-respected orthopedic surgeon, recently issued a warning that a commonly used device designed to reduce pain after surgery is potentially dangerous when used in the shoulder joint space. The devices, manufactured by Stryker Corporation, I-Flow Inc. and other companies, deliver high concentrations of pain medication directly to a surgical site. According to the recently published article co-authored by Dr. Beck, they can cause permanent and debilitating damage to the shoulder. In discussing the matter, Dr. Beck stated:

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